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AndrogynAss isn’t a fuckboy. He just plays one on stage.

“Stupid boy—that’s my drag,” the drag king tells me over coffee. “The early 2000s lead singers who’d go bad boy—terrible—but have these crazy fan bases. It’s all a character, and I’m making fun of it. I’m not playing that character being like, ‘I’m hot, love it.’ I’m a fucking asshole, we all know it, and I’m making fun of myself onstage.”

While the content of AndrogynAss’s performances varies wildly, it’s all done with the same knowing smirk. He might be clad in leather, holding a burning book. Or maybe he’s giving Backstreet Boys realness, stunting in jeans and a tee. Colourful circle glasses herald his most unhinged performances: channelling grandstanding rockers like Freddie Mercury and Ozzy Osborne, he pouts, gyrates, and body-rolls, serving a send-up of toxic masculinity delivered with camp flare. 

He mentions a friend’s theory of drag artists as clothing: some are jeans, the same every time. Some are utility belts, where the same character plays different roles. Some are cargo pants—a complete, chameleonic transformation. “I like to think I’m a utility belt,” AndrogynAss says. “I can play different characters and do other things, but it’s always Andy playing that character.”

In some ways he’s a baby king, having drawn on his beard for the first time at the end of 2022 when he debuted in Willow Child’s Wild Things show. But in barely a year, AndrogynAss—or Andy, for short—has already taken the Vancouver drag scene by storm. 

“In my first year, I did 100 shows. But by this time last year, I’d only done four,” he explains. “All of those 100 shows were from April to December. Looking at my calendar now stresses me out.”

The lack of time in drag has been made up for by hard work and clear vision. Andy had been visualizing his first drag performance since he was 14 years old—to Adam Lambert’s “If I Had You”, a glam-pop anthem that embraces guyliner, leather, and self-aware peacocking. It’s indicative of Andy’s approach to drag.    

“I grew up queer in a very straight world,” he says. “I was very sure of who I was pretty quickly, and confident, which really helps me in the drag world. A lot of people who enter it, they’re finding themselves, they’re really playing [around] to discover, which is so wonderful—but I was able to enter with a very clear mindset of who I am, who my character was, what I wanted to do.” 

That self-certainty is only growing. The performer was recently diagnosed as intersex, which he found to be “a great comfort.” His drag name comes from a reclamation of androgyny as not just an aesthetic choice, but a celebration of his physical reality—a fuck-you to people who have told him that androgyny is not a valid identity.

“I’m really happy to say that I’m intersex, because it finally gave me an identity and a label that I was like, ‘This is me,’” he explains. “I’m excited to continue discovering, because I feel more and more comfortable the more I’m discovering it.”  

AndrogynAss arguably first came to broader prominence in the local drag scene when he won the Heir to Hell competition in September, hosted by Miss Understood (of The Junction's weekly Drag Me to Hell nights). From there, he ended up opening for Chappell Roan’s concert at the Hollywood Theatre; spending more time doing shows in Seattle; and most recently entering the Vancouver’s Next Drag Superstar (VNDS) competition at the beginning of 2024. 

Some of the city’s most iconic drag performers have snatched the VNDS crown, such as Canada’s Drag Race stars Gia Metric and Kendall Gender, or Enby 6 members Kara Juku and PM. When it came time for Andy’s turn to compete—spoiler alert—he won in spectacular fashion. 

Out of drag, AndrogynAss has a background in athletics and theatre (he went to college on a soccer scholarship, and studied acting)—and he blended those talents into his VNDS competition performances. Week after week, his skills were put to good use: performing Grease with drag bestie Wan-Ting Moi, or choreographing a full fight scene to Fall Out Boy’s “Uma Thurman” for his finale number.

 

 

 

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“It’s fun as an actor to just fully act and embody to the most extreme possible,” he enthuses, gesturing with his hands to punctuate his point. “The full physicality; the over-the-top, dramatic character; the flashy, flamboyant supervillain from a ’50s cartoon—I can do all of that and it’s never too much.”

It’s notable that AndrogynAss is the second drag king in a row to win VNDS (after last year’s champ Genesis), following an almost-decade of queen dominance. Drag, in general, is often perceived as exclusively the domain of cisgender gay men donning high heels and big wigs. (That’s inaccurate in and of itself, as drag queens come from all across the gender and sexuality spectrum.) Kings and things, while long represented in the scene, have traditionally had less of a pull—though that seems to be changing. 

AndrogynAss, for his part, found a lot of acceptance in the Davie Street drag scene that’s traditionally less welcoming to masculine drag. He wants to help new kings learn the ropes, and work alongside all kinds of amazing drag performers—with a focus on all-around more diverse lineups.

“At the end of the day, we are co-workers. We are a community. We’re all working together in order to be accepted by the general public,” he muses. “We are so lucky in Vancouver, and I think that’s lost on a lot of people. I find division a shame—I find queen-only shows a shame, I find king-only shows a shame. It’s wasting so much potential.”  

In his reign, Andy hopes to get more into the booking side of drag: putting together the lineups, like his drag family member Xanax does. 

“When I first started, no one really talked to me. They were all quite dismissive. And that’s fine, I was new, I get it,” he says. “But now that I’m here … I want to be helpful, and give people advice that I never had. There’s already been such a wave of new kings coming into the scene, and I’m so excited by it.” 

Or, as he summarizes, “I want to be the king of Davie.” 

He’s already got the crown.